Greenwash Of The Week: Ecopod Home Recycling Center.

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Today I am launching yet another weekly feature here on The Good Human, and this one is titled “Greenwash Of The Week“. Each week I will be taking a look at a product that is being marketed in the name of being “green” – but is neither necessary or green at all! This week’s product is the Ecopod Home Recycling Center, a plastic and metal product that has only one purpose – to crush your cans and plastic bottles. Somehow, they have decided that this is something good for the environment, and have come up with this wording to try to sell it to you:

With an ecopod in your home or office, you will change the way you recycle. Place aluminum cans and plastic bottles into the top and step on the easy-step compaction system to store 50 or more containers. Place glass and other recyclables inside the top bins and you’lll benefit from clean effective recycling that your friends will admire.

Yes, your friends will admire that you wasted spent money on a giant box that crushes cans! They proclaim that the Ecopod will help keep 130 billion beverage containers out of landfills each year – amazing statistic to come up with since it still takes you, the human, to decide to recycle. I have a bin I bought for $6.99 that holds my recycling and keeps stuff out of the landfill – I didn’t need to spend hundreds of dollars for something that my feet and a $6.99 bin does.

In relation to this topic, I thought you might be interested in the below event hosted by Shell on November 19th: “The concept of ‘sustainability’, the use of the term by corporate organisations, and issues around communication have all recently been the subject of debate. Bjorn Edlund”™s Webchat will discuss, amongst other things, what Shell means by ‘sustainability’, whether companies are trying to hijack the issues, and if advertising claims hold water. We are looking for a broad and informed debate and as such would welcome your participation. To see the introductory video which explores the topic in more detail, to register to participate, and to see more of our work, please visit http://www.shell.com/dialogues.”

Nice pick-up. This is a classic example of marketers creating a product aimed at people who think the answer to reducing our environmental impact is by buying more stuff. Hmmm. Have added to my bloglog.